English Colonial Governance in a Nutshell: Charters, Proprietaries, and Royal Colonies

The History of the Americans

This blessedly short episode encapsulates the types of English colonial government in the 17th and 18th centuries, which were chartered corporations, proprietary “counties palatine,” and royal colonies directly ruled by the Crown through a governor and advisors. Technically abstruse as these distinctions may have been, they would become increasingly important starting in the 1670s, and will be useful background for much of what comes next.

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Links to selected English-American charter documents

Charter of Massachusetts Bay, March 4, 1629

Charter of the Colony of New Plymouth Granted to William Bradford and His Associates, 1629

Sir Robert Heath’s Patent for Carolana, October 30, 1629

The Charter of Maryland, June 20, 1632

Charter of Carolina, March 24, 1663

Charter of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, July 15, 1663

Charter for the Province of Pennsylvania, February 20, 1681

Avalon Project 17th Century Documents